


Concern

by Hazellum



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: :), Angst, Bad Parent Professor Membrane, Blood, Character Death, Gore, Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, I fucked that man up, M/M, Murder, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Nosebleed, Oh wow, Pakked Membrane, Violence, Zimbrane - Freeform, a whole fuckton of blood, lots of blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24515464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazellum/pseuds/Hazellum
Summary: Shit happens. Maybe angst, maybe fluff. Depends on the chapter.
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 57





	1. Nosebleed

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm taking a short break to post this. I'm still updating my other fic, I'll just occasionally post some IZ drabbles here when the fancy strikes me.

Zim was skittering torwards the mess hall. Today was lasagna day, and he was ever so ever so excited. Ever since Dib had introduced him to real, edible human cuisine, he'd been hooked. Oh look, here's Dib now!

She stopped in her tracks. Dib had seemed to just be mopping, but up close Zim could tell he was holding medical gauze to his face while mopping with the other hand. The gauze had several red spots, and was even dripping a bit. On the floor, there was... blood.

"Dib-stink! Dib-Stink! Are you okay? Are you okay? Do you need medic? Do you need? I'll go fetch Computer. I'll go-" Zim was cut off by laughter. Why in the Armada was Dib-Stink laughing? It must be hysteria. There must have been intruders, and a fight, and they were hurt. He had to help!

"Oh, Zim. For a giant roach you sure do worry a lot. Its just a nose bleed. Don't you get them?" asked Dib, in good spirits. A nose bleed? Did this happen regularly?

"Whaaat!? Do humans regularly just begin to spout blood from their facial orifices? By the Tallests, how has your species survived?" shouted Zim, as he hoisted himself into the ceiling. "I'll be back! I'm going to get more medical gauze!"


	2. Dib

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's another drabble. Non of these are in any set universe, just an fyi

Dib ran through the woods, praying that he would be fast enough to escape. As he dashed through the trees, he saw the outline of the lodge he, his sister, and his father were staying at over the weekend. He burst through the treeline and had only a second to celebrate his victory before he was tackled from behind. Only a moment to feel the cold pang of fear before everything went black.

For the longest time, Zim had been in conflict with Dib. Every day he had gone to "Skool" and sat through classes, all the time plotting away at his next scheme. The Dib-human hadn't even noticed his latest- and greatest- invention. A heart rate monitor he had implanted in the boy's chest cavity so that Zim could always monitor Dib. After all, he was the only one allowed to harm his rival.

As he stared blankly at the blackboard, an alert popped up on the display on the palm of his glove. The Dib's heart rate was going crazy! This was far beyond the usual spikes that would happen whenever the pathetic human worm-baby would try anything athletic. At this rate, a human heart would be near to exploding!  
However, just as Zim was considering leaving class, the heart rate went flat. Surely this was just a glitch. Surely this was just an error in his equipment. But...  
Zim's hand shot into the air. He shouted something about needing to use the toilet and jumped out the window. No one in class questioned a thing when a strange flying vehicle flew by the window, in the direction of the Great Forest Lodges.

Zim had a long way to go; these "lodges", as the humans called them, were on the other side of the country. So far in fact, that it would be... nighttime. 

That stupid IDIOT! If he had done what Zim thought he had done, then Zim was already too late. As Zim reentered Earth's atmosphere over a densely wooded forest, he immediately initialized all scans available to him. His readings picked up movement to the east, but no warmth where there should have been. His composition scans showed what appeared to be a humanoid assortment of different types of blood. Zim went pale and turned his Voot Cruiser towards this anomaly.  
Arriving at the scene, Zim saw Dib's still form, lying on the ground. He also saw what appeared to be a human hunched over his rival, biting into Dib's neck. How dare this abomination harm his rival! He was the mighty ZIM! He lined up every single one of the Voot's weaponry systems and fired. The beam of assorted colors made contact with the beast and had enough energy behind it to evaporate a continent. Somehow, this strange creature didn't immediately disappear. Instead, Zim could see it look towards him before it burst into flames.  
__  
A Few Days Later

Zim stood by Dib's coffin. He was the only one still in this "church"-building. How dare the humans to leave? This was a funeral for his rival. They should have all stayed until they wasted away into nothing. Even Gir had wandered off somewhere, saying something about making Dib some waffles. For some reason, Gir had taken a bag of human blood out of his head as he'd gone off to cook. Zim didn't even want to know where Gir had gotten such a thing and was quietly thankful his rival wouldn't have to eat those disgusting waffles.

As Zim was about to leave, to go find Gir, the lid of the coffin flew off. Dib- no, Dib's corpse- sat up straight, and gasped in a large breath of air.

"What the fuck just happened?!" shouted Dib, as he looked around wildly.

Zim, of course, screamed. As he looked around, Dib saw his rival screaming. Well, he smelt him before he saw him. Zim reeked. He smelt like somebody had taken an old gym sock, covered it in motor oil, and then rolled it in sugar and bourbon. Was Zim trying to use cologne?

"DIIIIIB! Why are you not dead!" screamed Zim, this time in his usual manner. 

"What do you mean? Where am I? What happened?"

"Do not lie, earth-stink! Zim saw your corpse! That weird human-but-not-really thing was EATING YOU!!"  
"Of COurse! I am ZIIIM! I have every manner of ray in my Pak! But why would I kill you?" shouted Zim, once again. As if to display his awesomeness, Zim brought out three different UV rays, one at the end of each Pak leg. 

"That thing that killed me was a vampire. If I'm not dead, then it must have turned me. Please just kill me."

"NOOOO! Suffer, WORM!!!!" screamed Zim, as he laughed maniacally and ran from the room.

"Well, shit"


	3. Zimbrane: AKA What the fuck did I do to this man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW blood, child abuse, had to raise the rating for this one.

Professor Membrane's assistants were all fairly confused when he arrived at the laboratory one day wearing an odd grey-and-pink oval on his back. However, they knew better than to question it; it was likely just another one of his experiments.

They were hardly even surprised when several times throughout the day, odd appendages would pop out of it to grab some flask or test tube from the other side of the lab. None of them raised an eyebrow when he used them to lift himself higher so he could get a closer look at one of his experiments.

It was only several days later that one of them noticed something wrong. The Professor's trademark hair scythe had seemed to split into two. However, when these antennae-like bits of hair were used to analyze frequencies, they just assumed it was another modification. His head was already mostly metal, anyways.

So, when he walked into the lab a month later with an extra set of arms, nobody said anything. Why would they? This was just Professor Membrane being his usual weird self.

They only began to worry when he started to refuse to attend press conferences or even let the legal team look over his work at the end of the quarter. But what could they do? He owned the place. Sure, more and more of his experiments seemed... off, but of course, they didn't understand everything. They were just assistants.

After about a year, when he stated that he wanted to resume his original show, did they start to seriously worry. He had refused to even mention it ever since Bruce and Diana... Well, ever since he got his prosthetics. And when his first episode of the new season was going to be a hypnosis device, the legal team quickly shut him down.

After a couple of years, when everyone realized they hadn't seen the professor's son, or his son's little green friend, in a while, they got suspicious. They realized the green one disappeared the same week the professor got his back-thing, and his son went missing a few months later. 

A few weeks later, the tension in the room would get so thick you could cut it with a knife whenever Membrane would walk into the room. However, he never seemed to notice. He also seemed to be getting increasingly vocal. Whereas before, he'd rarely speak above a low volume, now shouting was the norm. Never angry shouts, he was just loud. Excitable, even.

Of course, someone would look into where the boys had gone. So when one particularly experienced researcher came into the lab an hour late one day, and white as a sheet, everyone could feel their hearts sink to their shoes. They wouldn't answer questions about what they found, but everyone could gather it was... disturbing. And experimental.

When his daughter came into the lab one day, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. She, at least, was alright. However, their relief quickly turned to dread when they noticed she, too, had one of those... things on her back. This one seemed cobbled together, almost home-made. Several times throughout the day she would start screaming and try to rip the thing off, but the professor would always run into the room, tranquilize her, and then make modifications to the thing on her back.

Seeing Gazlene at the lab became a regular occurrence; her outbursts less so. Since she didn't wear a lab coat with a high collar, and goggles, everyone could see something wrong was happening.

It started with a slow, creeping, green rash that seemed to seep up her neck and down her arms. Now and then, she could be heard to mutter. She'd stop whenever anyone got too near, but from afar, people could hear her quietly begging for someone to get the thing off her. Any paper she would write on, she'd hunch over it. The whole paper would be covered in drops of saltwater, and in the margins, there would be little doodles of her brother, with x's for eyes.

Little treats would appear on her desk. A candy bar here, a game cartridge there. Whenever a new gameslave would come out, it would surely appear on her desk day of release. Her cheeks were always streaked with tears, and while at first, the assistants thought her eyes were simply red from crying, even her iris and pupils slowly turned red. The professor noticed this, and the next day when she came in, Gaz was wearing goggles. This didn't hide the fact that her ears were missing. Or that her nose fell off during lunch that day.

A week later, an Attack Of the Vampire Piggies themed bandana appeared on her desk. Gaz slightly lifted her goggles off her eyes, and liquid spilled from them. She then tied the bandana around her face. Walking by later, the professor used one of his robotic back-thing appendages to rip it off her face and toss it into a bunsen burner.

As he did this, Gaz started to twitch. For the first time in weeks, she seemed.. alive. She screamed something about a "PAK," while ripping the goggles off her face and running her hands through her hair. As she ran her hands through her hair, two antennae became visible, previously hidden by bobby pins. Professor Membrane backhanded her, knocking her unconscious. He sighed, and set to work on her.. "Pak."

As he worked, Professor Membrane laid one of his for hands across his forehead, as if he had a migraine. He seemed to be holding a conversation with someone invisible and used his other three hands to add multiple metal rods to the Pak. As he finished, he pressed a few buttons on the interior of Gaz's Pak, and she jittered around on the floor before four of the odd appendages shot out of her Pak, one pointing in each cardinal direction. After this, they retracted, and she stood up. Tears streamed down her face, and she stomped back to her desk.

A little over a week later, Gaz didn't enter the building alone. Her brother- or at least, something that looked very much like her brother- walked beside her. He wore a lab coat very similar to Membrane's, but his goggles didn't seem to be goggles. They seemed like LEDs with cameras in the center. On his hair scythe was a small, round ball, like would be found at the end of an old radio. His limbs didn't seem to be attached to his body. They almost seemed to be floating magnetically. His skin was also silver, like a titanium alloy. He was positively metallic.

No one cared that Dib was more subdued than usual. Or even that he would, several times throughout the day, start screaming, and seeming to have an existential crisis very loudly. Just like as with Gaz, the Professor would dash into the room and knock him out. With Dib, however, he'd open his child's head like a trash can. He'd rattle around inside for a while, and then "reboot" the poor kid. No one cared, for Dib was alive, at least mostly, and Gaz seemed happier than she had in months.

During the afternoon shift a few months later, the professor entered the section of the lab where Dib and Gaz were working. Dib's eyes went red, and he stood in front of Gaz, shielding her from Membrane. Gaz seemed to do something no one had ever seen her do before; she shrank away in fear. The professor didn't even flinch as he tazed Dib into unconsciousness, and jabbed Gaz in the neck with a hypodermic needle. He then swiftly left the room, going back to his private chamber.

The next morning, while writing out reports, Gaz started to scream. For once, the professor didn't come running. He walked calmly into the room and stood in the doorway. By his demeanor, anyone would think he was a child, waiting for the performers to come out at a circus.

Everyone flinched when Gaz's sides started to tear, and a few fainted when magenta blood started gushing from the wounds. Only a couple were still watching when a new pair of arms popped out of the holes, and no one noticed when Membrane clapped and left the room.

The next day, as Membrane was hunched over a microscope, Dib crept up behind him. Dib slowly lifted a large paper cup over Membrane's head and started to pour. As soon as the water touched Membrane, he started to smoke and sizzle. One of those odd appendages shot out of Membrane's Pak, impaling Dib and sending him flying across the room. He lay broken against a wall, sparking.

Membrane reached down and picked up the cup. He left the room, and when he returned it was full. He strode over to Gaz and dumped it on her head. Her skin started to bubble and hiss. Her hair fell out in lumps, and magenta blood leaked from abrasions in her skin, and holes where it had melted apart. Ignoring his daughter's screams of agony, the professor grabbed her wrist, scooped up dib in two of his free arms, and went home early for the day.

The researchers could hear her squeals and screeches ringing in their ears for the rest of the day.

When they all returned the next day, Gaz had bandages across the right side of her head and all down her shoulders and back. Dib had a piece of scrap metal bolted to his chest. For once, Membrane's collar was down. The assistants could all see scorch marks from a hasty welding job smattered all across his metallic chin. His skin, or what they could see of it, was olive green. Different from his daughter's more minty hue.

Several times throughout the day, Dib's eyes would flicker from their usual gold to red, and he'd start to twitch and scream. These episodes brought Membrane to him immediately, running on those strange, sharp appendages which had become all to common a sight in the labs. He'd taze Dib repeatedly, even once the boy was on the ground, his eyes gone dim. Membrane would huff and puff, and his Pak would start to glow brighter and brighter. He'd keep tazing Dib until he was out of breath, before staggering over to a wall, falling into it, and starting to cry. This was the first thing ina long time to surprise the researchers.

"I fixed you, I fixed you, you're not dead, you're not you're not you're not please make it stop make it stop please I beg please please why didn't I believe you why whywhywhywhywhy" would be heard from him each time. Each time he'd jitter about, smack himself in the face, and gently tap his Pak twice on one of the buttons on the back. He'd fiddle around in it a bit, and then reattach it to his back. Membrane would stand up straight, smile, and leave the room calmly as if nothing had happened. As soon as he left, Gaz would rush over to her brother and reboot him.

The next day, when they walked in Gaz's bandages were gone, and the only way to tell she had been inured was that she had a slightly lighter skin tone where the water had melted her, almost like a scar. Dib seemed brand-new, with a shiny new chassis, new eye lights, and a shiny new "hair" scythe.

Membrane stood behind them, a pair of hands on each of their shoulders. The picture of a proud parent.

Dib opened his mouth and started to say "Someone, help" before Membrane slapped a hand over his mouth, and steered his children to their desks. The assistants wanted to help, but they all still remembered the ones who tried. The ones who'd never been seen since. The ones there were no records of, either at the lab or in the national databanks.

They all remembered the CPS agents who had arrived at the lab a week prior. Who had tried to claim the children, but couldn't. When they tried to do bloodwork, Gaz's blood nearly broke the machine, melting it away. Dib didn't even have any blood.

They all remembered the agents' wariness at being led into Membrane's private chamber. They could all still hear the screams.

They all remembered the families of those who'd gone missing.

A few days later, Membrane came in with only two arms. Everyone at the lab was hesitant to get their hopes up, but maybe things were going back to normal. Maybe Membrane would be himself again. Maybe they could forget the blood and the death. Maybe they could forget those who had given their lives. None of the assistants could even care anymore for the dead; they worried enough for the living.

When they noticed Membrane taking shot after shot out of a bottle labeled "suppressant," pounding them like a frat boy at a party, they didn't bat an eye. They simply worked on. When they saw him clutching his sides and screaming, hunched in a corner, they ignored him. When he crawled over to his desk and injected something into the artery on his forehead, they didn't care. It would all be worth it if they didn't have to live in fear anymore.

When Membrane silently cried as two new arms burst from his sides, none of the assistants could hold back a single sob. When they noticed Membrane crawling over to a bone saw on the table of one of their number, they merely backed away and made room. When he began to saw off the spare limbs, slowly grating away at them, staining the floor permanently magenta, they held their breath.

When he stumbled into his chamber and came out with an IV filled with cyan liquid going directly into his chest, they cried. When he went home early for the day, and his children followed willingly for once, they dared to hope. They dared to pray.

They hoped in vain. Membrane strode confidently into the lab the next day, four arms and all. His hair scythe-antennae were slimmer and sharper. His lab coat had magenta stains all down its sides, and he had what was left of an IV pump dangling from his chest. He greeted everyone merrily and left them to their work. No one saw Dib or Gaz that day. Or any day, for a few weeks.

For those few weeks, Membrane was downright normal. Creepily so. He'd chatter away for hours about how Dib and Gaz were away at camp, and how he so hoped they'd enjoy their summer. He would talk the day away, not getting any work done. When alone, he could be seen to be staring at a map, muttering "where are they" repeatedly.

He stayed alone more and more over those weeks. "Where did I hide them," "Where did I put them," and "Where did I leave my children" were the only things he'd say by the end of the final week. On the last day the children were missing, he seemed elated halfway through lunch and dashed out of the room. He wasn't seen again until the next day.

He positively skipped into the lab the next day, holding each of his children in a hug, using one of his pairs of arms. He set them lightly in their chairs and went to his private chambers. Gaz started to cry, and Dib could be seen to stand guard, and tense up whenever a door opened. At the end of the day, they tried to go home, but Membrane wouldn't let them. Dib went into "fight mode," as it had come to be known, and was tazed mercilessly for his efforts. They were all still working when the morning shift got there at dawn.

By the end of the day, Dib had come and gone from the cafeteria several times. Each time he seemed more top-heavy. at the end of the day, he walked over to Membrane under the pretense of a hug. As he hugged his father, Dib opened the top of his head and started to spout water with high pressure. Membrane simply smiled, and said "Paste," before pulling out a pair of bolt cutters. He began to slowly and methodically take apart Dib's limbs, laying them out bit by bit. All the while, Dib was screaming. When Gaz tried to threaten Membrane into stopping by holding a pitcher of water over her lap, he simply told her to go ahead, like a parent letting their child onto the Ferris wheel. Both children were bandaged again, the next day.

Throughout the day, Dib would struggle to move. His limbs seemed like the magnets hadn't yet fully aligned. Maybe this was why his "bandages" seemed more like duct tape keeping him together at the seams. Maybe this was why the assistants could see his metal slowly melting back together.

Throughout the day, Gaz would wince every time she had to mover her legs. She seemed only able to get around using her Pak appendages since both her legs were in casts. She still shuddered whenever the slightest gust of wind would touch her legs. By the end of the day, all the desk fans were turned off.

Throughout the day, gifts piled onto both of their desks. Magazines, cameras, and books for Dib, games, and boxes upon boxes of pizza for Gaz. When she started to cry at the pizza, and even the steam from the meatlover's pizza started to make her skin bubble, the pizzas were quickly replaced with vegetarian versions. The meaty pizzas were only ever seen again by the garbage collector.  
_____________________________________________________  
Membrane could be heard quietly giggling to himself throughout the next day. He'd put the fingers of one, or two, or three, or four, of his hands in his hair and just stand there, cracking apart at the facade he'd so carefully constructed. The day after, the name on his nametag was different. It was in a language none of them could understand. When he spoke, it was in clicks and chirps half of the time. A day later, his speech patterns were back to normal, and he had a bottle of pills in one hand at all times. He was missing at lunch, and when everyone got back to their work stations, there were two thin, olive-green arms lying in the sink at one of the eyewash stations, floating in blood. It spilled over the sides, pouring over onto the floor. Membrane's jacket had its two extra sleeves ripped off. One of them still hung half-shredded at his side. His entire labcoat from the chest down was bright magenta, and sparkly, like his blood. He left a trail wherever he went, and more pairs of arms were found scattered throughout the lab each time Membrane was left alone.

Dib and Gaz were by their father's side the whole day. both of their faces stayed wet with tears, though Gaz's were green and Dib's looked like motor oil. Every time the IV of cyan liquid he had going into his chest would get low, one of them would go fetch another, but they'd step back, afraid, while it was detached and he was replacing it. Every time his bottle of pills would run out, an assistant would bring him another.

They were scared for their lives, but he was still their boss. If they could help him, get him back to normal, however temporarily, they would.

The assistants held back a collective scream the next day when they opened the door to their lab, and there was an inch deep of blood on the floor. Membrane, Dib, and Gaz were all covered in it, laying in a pile on the floor. They were all hugging each other and were all crying. The assistants watched as two new arms sprouted from the shredded, bloodied, bruised, and broken nubs at Membrane's waist. They all watched as the children, too tired to move, simply let themselves be picked up by their heads. They all watched as Membrane changed the sign over the front door to read closed for the day, smiled, and began to hum. They watched as he opened the drains in the floor, and began to hose down the entire first floor. The floors would never be the same sterile white they once were.

They all watched as Membrane gathered up the arms from across the building. There must have been a hundred of them. But he simply gathered them all in a pile over the largest drain and grabbed a hose. Instead of sanitizing fluid, this one sprayed water. They all watched as the evidence of the professor's attempts at sanity the night before melted away down the drain.

The next several days found Dib and Gaz acting strangely... robotic. Their movements were stilted, and their faces twisted in anguish. This led to a head when both of them started to erupt at the same time. Gaz screamed and screamed and screamed, trying repeatedly to throw herself in a pool of water. The assistants wouldn't let her. Dib's whole body flickered red, and weapons seemed to emerge from his head on appendages very similar to those in the other two's back. They'd jerk around for a bit, retract, and then come back out.

Membrane came the quickest he ever had. Wielding a stun gun in one hand, and a hypodermic needle in another, he used his other two hands to hold each of his children down. He took care of Gaz's "repairs" first, and then Dib's. He kept muttering about "setting the behavioral constraints too high."

Five of the twenty assistants went in early one day. They armed themselves to the teeth. They didn't care who Membrane once was; they only thought of who he was now. They would save Dib, Gaz... and the man they once knew.

When the fifteen assistants got to work that day, they knew better than to question the new decoration on the wall.

One assistant decided to see what was in Membrane's private chamber. He stayed late that night and made sure he was the only one in the lab. The assistants had once been a hundred strong. He had to hope that whatever was in that room was at least marginally worth it.

He opened the door and realized what it was. A ship. A massive ship. This room was so much larger than it could be. This ship was larger than the entire city! He had to tell someone! 

As he turned to run out the door, he ran into someone. Membrane. He had all four arms poised to grab him. He looked over at Gaz and was horrified. All this time, he had known her sanity to be partially intact. All this time she had had the correct number of limbs. He felt his heart sink to his feet as he saw the four arms on her torso, and the calm scowl on her face, so like the one she always wore before all this. He looked over to Dib, daring to hope.

Hoping was a bad idea. Dib's eyes were a bright, shiny red.

_______________________________________________________________________

It had been four years since City had disappeared, leaving all its residents dust in the wind. It had simply vaporized as if caught in the thrusters of a county-sized rocket. No one acknowledged the fact that the only buildings still standing were very specific. One was Membrane Labs, once the seat of peace and prosperity for Earth. Inside, authorities had found far over a hundred corpses, all in various states of decay. Another was the old Membrane residence. In its basement, a sprawling labyrinth of scientific equipment, test tubes, and alien bodies was found. Of course, that's what the conspiracy theorists say. The final was an old, lopsided purple house right next door. It was completely gutted inside, except for one table, with a note on it.

*Master's been away for a while, but Mary came over yesterday! He's like me now! Yaaaay~ I've gotta go, Mary says we're going to spaaaaace! I want waffles, but Mry wouldn't eat them. I wonder if Mary's sister will?

q Love, Gir!!!!<3*


End file.
